It is generally known in the prior art that a wet razor assembled with fluoropolymer coated blades outperforms a razor assembled without fluoropolymer-coated blades. One of the most common fluoropolymers utilized for coating razor blades is polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE (or a form of TEFLON®). The addition of PTFE (e.g., telomer) coating to the blade cutting edge dramatically reduces the cutting force values for beard hairs or other types of hair fibers. A reduced cutting force is desirable as it significantly improves shaving attributes including safety, closeness and comfort. Such known PTFE-coated blade edges are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,071,856.
There are many types of coating processes that could be utilized to produce polymer coated (e.g., PTFE) coated blade edges. Some processes involve aqueous dispersion of the PTFE and some involve organic dispersion of the PTFE. Aqueous dispersion processes may include spraying, spin coating and dipping. PTFE may also be deposited on blade edges using vacuum based processes such as sputtering or thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). However, when quality, cost and environmental issues are considered, the spraying of an aqueous PTFE dispersion is typically desired. PTFE dispersion in an organic solvent is also a known process in the art. This type of dispersion may include for example, Dupont's Vydax 100 in isopropanol as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,756.
Regardless of whether an aqueous or organic based dispersion is utilized, if a spraying process is utilized along with a subsequent sintering process, a non-uniform surface morphology, on a microscopic scale, is generally produced on blade edges and in the area proximal to the ultimate blade tips which is a drawback.
There is a need for an improved, effective method and apparatus to produce desirable blade edges with improved shaving attributes.